5 Silicon Valley tech hires who quit Indian unicorns in a year

Anand Chandrasekaran quit as Snapdeal’s chief product officer yesterday, joining the growing tribe of top Silicon Valley hires leaving Indian unicorns within one year of joining the company.

This is in sharp contrast to last year when the top US talent were leaving globally iconic US tech companies like Google , Disney to move base to India and join fast-growing Internet companies like Flipkart , Snapdeal and Zomato with matching salaries in dollar terms.

This exodus also comes at a time when Indian tech companies are struggling with a funding slowdown leading them to cut costs and reduce cash burn.

Here are some prominent Silicon Valley hires who have left Indian unicorns in about a year

Punit SoniOne of Flipkart’s most high-profile hire Punit Soni quit last month, about a year after joining the company from Google. He along with Flipkart’s current chief technology officer (also an ex-Googler) Peeyush Ranjan was reportedly receiving million dollar-plus annual salary each apart from $3-6 million in stock options.

Soni now plans to head back to Silicon Valley to pursue entrepreneurship again.

Niket DesaiAlong with Punit Soni, Flipkart Chief of Staff Niket Desai had also quit the e-tailer last month. He had joined Flipkart from Google in April last year.

Tanmay SaksenaFormer Disney executive Tanmay Saksena had quit as the chief product officer of Zomato in February, barely a year into the company.

Earlier this month, Saksena joined the Sequoia India-backed healthcare startup 1mg as its chief operating officer, where he intends to focus on growing 1mg’s e-pharmacy business and expand into new cities.

Namita GuptaFormer Facebook exec Namita Gupta had quit as the chief product officer of Zomato in July 2015, after spending less than year at the online restaurant discovery and food delivery company.